ST JOHN’S College Council has defended its decision to disband its second chapel choir, the mixed-gender St John’s Voices (SJV) (News, 22 March).
In a press release issued on Thursday within the wake of the growing chorus of protest, it said that, following a comprehensive review of music within the Cambridge college, the choice to pursue a broader approach had been unanimous, and reflected students’ feedback on their needs and aspirations.
“Students’ preferences and experiences in music today are different from those of previous generations, and plenty of of them have had fewer musical opportunities in class than may need been the case up to now,” the statement reads. “St John’s will create recent co-curricular music programmes to fulfill these changing needs.”
Proposals include a scheme to supply music lessons for any St John’s student; masterclasses on features of music akin to song-writing; “enabling recent ensembles and community music-making”; “supporting other forms of singing in college, including Aquila, the present all-female choir; and recent opportunities for non-auditioned singing”. The council proposes music awards to all St John’s students who sing in auditioned choirs within the university.
Money currently dedicated to SJV is to be redirected to all these, taking into account “the choral opportunities already available within the collegiate university, to which St John’s College Choir will proceed to make a vital and distinctive contribution.” The statement praises the “exceptional choral education and training” of the College Choir.
The council acknowledges that that choir is just not capable of offer opportunities for soprano singers, but insists that “talented classical singers of all voice types are exceptionally well provided for across the University of Cambridge, with around 25 college chapel choirs catering primarily for the Anglican choral tradition.”
The statement suggests the potential for a successor to SJV, independent of the faculty, and says: “This could possibly be a route for the corpus of the choir and its director to remain together in the event that they wish, and by meeting a spot in provision within the University, could add a fresh dimension to classical singing in Cambridge.” It points to a “financial hurdle”, nevertheless, in the form of a needed endowment of at the very least £500,000.
It concludes: “The upset this decision has caused to the St John’s Voices community is regrettable. The decision is under no circumstances a mirrored image on the high standards achieved by the choir and its director, Graham Walker. The college will provide support to members of St John’s Voices who want to discover and secure alternative choral and accompanist opportunities. There might be time next term to pay tribute to all that they’ve achieved of their ten-year history.”
